


Christmas Story

by Kennesaw



Category: Changeling: the Dreaming
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28310637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kennesaw/pseuds/Kennesaw
Summary: Annie tells Lambert a story of a past Christmas.
Relationships: Lambert (Lugh) Mac Cathain/Anand Darach
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Christmas Story

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Longpig](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Longpig/gifts).



“I just had the weirdest sense of deja vu.”

Lambert cocked an eyebrow, looking down at Annie where her head was laid upon his chest.

“Oh yeah? Curling up with someone else in front of your fireplace?”

He could sense the smile, though she didn’t move to look at him.

“Yes, actually, but not this fireplace, and not like this, and not how you’re thinking, either.” Annie shifted to grab her cup of cocoa to take a sip. “Right in the middle of the Accordance War, back when we thought we had a chance of winning.”

Lambert frowned and nodded.

“It’d been a long couple of months, one rearguard action after another. They’d taken Golden Gate, Finvarr, Montival, Rosewall. Goddamn Rosewall. I’d lent troops for its defense and the Arcadians wouldn’t even let us recover their bodies…”

Annie took another sip, staring into the fire for a long moment before continuing.

“Anyway, it was the beginning of the Siege of Evergreen, or the beginning of the beginning. Still moving troops into place. I was down in Castle Rock, evacuating noncombatants, when a Gwydion expeditionary force managed to surround us.”

“How?”

“An old trod, closed until the Resurgence. The local leader, Thurid, I think?” Annie smiled wistfully. “Yeah, Thurid. Big old bear of a troll. She could outdrink and outfight her whole freehold at once, and had. You’d have liked her. Anyway, she and her people had had their hands full, so no one had found it before then. Bad luck, really, and not the worst instance the war saw.”

“We managed to hole up in the freehold there, this beautiful bastion grown right out of the rock. The actual town is named for it, though they think it’s just a big outcropping, of course. The freehold’s still there, though it’s held by Sir Avanyne these days.”

“So it was me, the four fighters I’d taken, Thurid and six warriors left in her household, and about twenty noncombatants. We held there for ten days.”

“With that many people? I thought you had been evacuating. They were ready for a siege?”

“No, but Mount Saint Helens is nearby, and I knew the Nunnehi chief whose people lived there. He managed to get a few people past the Arcadian lines with supplies for us. We tried to get the childer out with them, but the nobles reinforced before we could.”

“It just so happened that the commander who’d come with the reinforcements was House Scathach, like me, so I sent a message to attempt to parley. Beneath the stares and gun sights of our troops, we met between their lines and the castle.”

“Do you end up curling up on a couch with them?”

Annie laughed, swatting Lambert playfully.

“No, no, this isn’t that kind of story.”

“I was just wondering…”

Annie rolled her eyes.

“By then, it was Christmas Eve, and both our forces wanted to be elsewhere, so I issued a challenge. Single combat, him and me. If he won, I’d hand over the castle, myself, and all our warriors, provided he let the childer go home to their families, those who had them. If I won, we’d all go free.”

“He gets the freehold either way like that, doesn’t he?”

“He was going to anyway, but this way he wouldn’t risk any of his troops. It wasn’t a great deal for me, but it was a bad situation in the first place.”

“Sorry, yeah, I wasn’t criticizing, just making sure I followed right.”

Annie took Lambert’s hand, squeezing reassuringly.

“Well, the challenge had been issued in front of his people, so he couldn’t really back down.”

“Let me guess. You kicked his ass?”

“Closer than it should have been; I’d just been through ten nights of little sleep and lots of worry. But, yes, I kicked his ass. He was new to Autumn, so he wasn’t prepared to have to struggle with his Glamour, or conserve it. Blew it all in the beginning, burning through a bunch to force through a couple of cantrips that he thought some provincial Autumn sidhe wouldn’t be able to handle.” Annie smirked. “Dumbass.”

“I ended up disarming him, holding his sword while he watched my people leave. I handed it to Thurid when we were the last two still there, and she thrust it into the castle’s stone. She looked that lord right in the eye and said, ‘It’s yours if you can claim it.’ We both got on my bike and headed north to Seattle.”

“That’s fucking awesome. So, did you and Thurid…?”

Annie laughed.

“I promise, I don’t get with anyone in this story.”

“Oh, I thought this was the end of it.”

“No, there’s a little more. So, I dropped Thurid off with her people in Sweetwater and came back to Seattle. Like I said, it was Christmas Eve, so I had obligations. I had to go straight to my parents’ house for dinner.”

“Wait, what?”

“You know what family means to me. So I showed up, more than a little bruised, not having slept in more than a day, and my mom just gives me a hug and tells me I need to wash up so I can help with tamales.”

“I never did make it to helping with the tamales. I washed up, then sat down on the couch in front of the fireplace in the living room. I’d just sat down and my niece Maria, my little mariposa, she just plopped down next to me and laid her head on my lap. I don’t remember falling asleep, but the next thing I remember was waking up to the smell of coffee and bacon and the sounds of my family in the kitchen. Somebody had put a blanket on me in the night, I know that much. It was just...exactly what I needed right then.”

Annie smiled, her eyes sparkling as she looked up at Lambert.

“Just now, it felt a little like that.”


End file.
